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TENNESSEE TROUBLES. 



i^ E] IP o :e^ T 



THE JOIISTT COMMITTEE 



APPOINTED AT THE 



EXTH^ SESSIOIS" 



Thirty-Fifth Genera! Assembly of Tennessee, 

To wait on the President of the United States, and solicit protection 
for the loyal citizens of the State. 



Submitted to the Governor Sept. i6, 1868. 



NASHVILLE, TENN.: 
S. C. MERCER, PRINTER TO THE STATE. 

1868. 



73 f 






The Tennessee Troubles. 



Report of the Joint Committee appointed by tfie Legislature to 
wait on tlie President of tlie United States. 



Xashville, Tenn., ] 
Sept. 16th, 1868. J 

To His Excellency W. G. Brownlow, 

Governor of Tennessee : 

The undersigned were appointed 
under a joint resolution of the Leg- 
islature of Tennessee— a copy of 
which accompanies this report — a 
Committee to wait on the President 
of the United States and urge upon 
him to take steps to protect the law- 
abiding citizens of this State. The 
Legislature by whom we were ap- 
pointed, having adjourned, we make 
this report to your Excellency, that 
you and the public may know what 
the Committee have accomplished. 

On our arrival at Washington, we 
prepared a memorial or address to 
the President of the United States, 
setting forth the condition of affairs 
in Tennessee, a copy of which ac- 
companies this report. This was 
presented to the President, and re- 
ceived by him io the spirit of frank- 
ness and candor which was to be ex- 
pected of the chief executive officer 
of a great nation. After a full, free 
and unreserved conversation in re- 
spect to the affairs in this State, and 
the matters contained in our address, 



as well with the Secretary of "War 
as the President, we received for 
answer the accompanying letter of 
Gen, Schofield, Secretary of War, 
inclosing also a copy of the order 
issued to Major General Thomas, 
commanding the Department of the 
Cumberland. 

We scarcely need add that our 
reception by the President was kind 
and cordial, as also was our inter- 
view with the Secretary of War, 
Gen. Schofield. 

We flatter ourselves tkat we have 
accomplished much towards quiet- 
ing the troubles in Tennessee. The 
President, as you will see from the 
correspondence, has done what has 
not heretofore been done officially, 
promising " that the military power 
of the United States will be em- 
ployed whenever, and so far as it 
may be necessary, to protect the 
civil Government of Tennessee 
against lawless violence, and enable 
that Government to execute the 
laws the of State and protect its law- 
abiding citizens," This, in our 
opinion, will have a salutary effect 
upon that class of persons in Ten- 
nessee who believe, or say they be- 



lieve, that the present State Gov- 
ernment in Tennessee has no legal 
or constitutional existence, and that 
consequently they have a right to 
resist its authority, or even to over- 
turn it by force. 

We believe and are satisfied that 
the President of the United States 
has done all in his power, under the 
laws and constitution, and have no 
doubt of his sincerity in what he 
has ordered. We are further satis- 
fied that these pledges will be faith- 
fully carried out and executed. 

We endeavored to embrace, in 
our address to the President, the 
true condition of affairs in this 
State, which we hope we did, and 
that it will meet the approbation of 
your Excellency, the Legislature 
and the law-abiding citizens of our 
State, and that our action in the 
premises will be sustained by you 
and the great body of our country- 
men. 

We remain, very respectfully 
your obedient servant, 

Wm. H. Wisener, Sr., 
On the part of the Senate, 

Thos. a. Hamilton, 

J. A. Agee, 
On the part of the House. 

SENATE resolution NO. 10. 

Resolved by the Senate, the House 
concurring, That a Joint Select Com- 
mittee, to consist of one on the part 
of the Senate, and two on the part 
of the House, be appointed to wait 
on his Excellency, Andrew Johnson, 
President of the XJuited States of 
America, and place fully before him 
the present condition of affairs in 
this State, and urge upon him to 
take steps to give protection to the 



law-abiding citizens of the State, 
under the provisions of the Consti- 
tution of the United States. 
Adopted September 1, 1868. 
[Signed.] F. S. Eichards, 

r '—' — > -v Speaker House of Eeps. 
\ SEAL \ D. W. C. Senter, 

^ — r—' ■' Speaker of Senate, 

I certify that the above is a true 
copy of the original resolution. 

[Signed.] J. M. Alexander, 
Engrossing Clerk of the House of 

Eepresentatives. 

I certify that the Hon. Wm. H. 
Wisener was appointed on the part 
of the Senate. 

D. W. C. Senter, 
Speaker of the Senate. 
Senate Chamber, Nashville, Sept. 
7th, 1868. 

I certify that Messrs. T. A. Ham- 
ilton and J. H. Agee were appointed 
on the part of the House of Eepre 
sentatives. F. S. Eichards, 

Speaker of House of Eeps. 
Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 7, 1868. 



To Bis Excellency Andrew Johnson, 
President of tlie United States : 
We have been appointed a com- 
mittee by the Legislature of Ten- 
nessee to wait upon you and " place 
fully before you the present condi- 
tion of affairs in that State, and 
urge upon you to take steps to give 
protection to the law-abiding citi- 
zens of the State, under the provi- 
sions of the constitution of the 
United States." We now address 
vou in the discharge of the duty 
imposed upon us by the action of 
the Legislature of that State. 

The first thing required to be 
done by us is to place before you 



fully the present condition of affairs 
in Tennessee. 

To do this, Mr. President, would 
take more time and space than are 
consistent with a written communi- 
cation prepared as this necessarily 
has been. VYe can only touch 
upon the more prominent affairs of 
our State. 

First, Mr. President, you are 
awai-e that the Legislature of Ten 
nessee has been called together in 
extra session, and has not yet ad- 
journed. The main object in call- 
ing it together by the Governor, as 
indicated in his message, was that 
it might pass laws calling out troops 
for the protection of the people 
against the secret organization 
known as the Kuklux Klan — laws 
which were deemed necessary by 
his Excellency to suppress such il- 
legal associations. That a necessity 
exists for military protection in 
, some portions of that State the 
Legislature and committee fully 
concur. 

That there is such an organiza- 
tion as the " Kuklux Klan " is now 
beyond question or pcradventure. 
In a recent publication made by au- 
thority, or with the assent of a gen- 
eral officer of the so-ealled Confed- 
erate States, it is stated that there 
are forty thousand members of this 
association in Tennessee. 

As to the objects and purposes of 
the organization, they can only be 
known by their acts and sayings 
while in their masks and ghostly 
uniforms. Whilst thus engaged, 
they take out citizens and kill them 
— sjme by hanging, some by shoot- 
ing and some by the slower and 
more barbarous plan of whipping, 



whilst others are whipped, not un- 
til death, but severely and dis- 
gracefully. In some parts of the 
State they are traveling at night, as 
often as twice a week, and visiting 
the houses of Union men and Fed- 
eral soldiers, some of whom they 
kill, others they whip and order 
from the country on pyin of being 
killed if they do not leave, while 
others are ordered away under 
promise of violence if they remain 
after thus being ordered to depart. 
This is carried on by greater or less 
numbers, according as the objects 
to be effected on the particular night 
are of greater or less magnitude. 
They rarely appear in their masks 
and uniforms in daylight. It is in 
the night when they mostly travel 
and perpetrate their acts of vio- 
lence and bloodshed. The mo-^t 
peaceable, orderly, quiet, and we 
may say even the most exemplary 
members of the church are not ex- 
empt from their midnight visits and 
are objects of their personal vio— 
lonce. Instances are known where 
the most orderly and pious men of 
a neighborhood have been waked 
from their slumbers and beaten by 
them for no other reason than their 
political sentiments. Murders arc 
common, particularly among the 
colored people, against whom the 
Klan seem to have pe(;uliar and 
mortal hatred. Many colored -peo- 
ple have been whij)ped, some of 
them badly, and some until they 
have died from its effects, and 
many of them have been murdered 
for no other reason or offense than 
their political opinions and senti- 
ments. Many colored people who 
had hired for the year, or engaged 



to work for a portion of the crop, 
have been compelled to leave their 
homes for their personal safety and 
fly for their lives, leaving their em- 
ployers or their crops ; and unless 
something is done for their relief 
they cannot go home, and will, of 
course, lose their earnings, with 
starvation in the gloomy future for 
themselves and families. 

In the class of cases shown above 
there is no excuse or palliation for 
the wrongs perpetrated upon the 
citizens ; but there is another class 
of cases where the Klan take the 
case into their own hands, where, 
although there is no .justification, 
there are circumstances of alleged 
palliation. These are when a mur- 
der hag been committed under cir- 
cumstances of aggravation, as in the 
case of young Bicknell, in the 
county of Maury. He was foully 
murdered. The guilty agent was 
arrested by the civil authorities, 
lodged in jail, and afterwards by 
the Kuklux taken out and hung. 
There seems to have been no doubt 
as to his guilt, but this was no Jus- 
tification to those who hung him 
without trial. There are some 
other cases where they have hung 
men for alleged crimes. These 
cases are mentioned for the reason 
that we are sent here to place be- 
fore your Excellency the present 
condition ©f aflPairs in our State. 
These parties should be tried and 
punished according to the law. It 
is true, in some of these cases, it is 
said, and the fact may be, the guilt 
of the party is beyond question or 
doubt. Assume this to be so, as we 
concede it to be in some cases where 
they have hung the offenders, it is 



the more certain they will be con- 
victed and punished if tried. These 
cases of punisdment for crimes are 
referred to by the friends of the 
order to justify its existence or 
conduct, when they are assailed in 
newspapers or otherwise. 

We will further add that most, if 
not all, the persons engaged in these 
violations of law, and who belong 
to the Klan, so far as known, were 
enemies to the government during 
the late civil war ; but we are able 
to stHte — and do so with pleasure — 
that many of the Confederate sol- 
diers and officers, who fought gal- 
lantly during the war, disapprove 
of and condemn the Klan and its 
acts of unprovoked violence. 

We have thus far spoken of the 
acts of this organization. Their 
object, they say, is to overthrow the 
State Government of the State of 
Tennessee, and many of them de- 
clare they are now as willing to 
fight the Government of the United 
States as they were at the com- 
mencement of the rebellion. The 
more discreet ones of them, how- 
ever, do not say " Government" in 
this connection, but say "the Yan- 
kees." 

Many of them declare that the 
Stale Government of Tennessee is 
illegal, and they have legally a right 
to resist and even to overturn it. 
This is not confined to the masses, 
but finds advocates in distinguished 
men high in the estimation of those 
forming the late so-called Confed- 
erate States Government. Kesist- 
ance to the Government of Ten- 
nessee and the laws passed by her 
Legislature since the war, is, in the 
opinion of the committee, as crimi- 



nal as to attempt to overthrow or 
resist the Government and laws of 
the State of New York, or any 
other State of the Union. 

But, it may be said, the courts 
can punish these offenders, and 
therefore no military force is neces- 
sary. To this we reply that it is a 
fact, no one in any of the counties 
in Tennessee, as far as we have 
been able to ascertain, has ever 
been tried or punished for any 
of the offenses or class of offenses 
mentioned above, and so long as 
public opinion remains as it is, none 
will be, especially in those counties 
where the order is numerous. No 
person dare prosecute, for if he 
should his life would be endangered 
thereby. People are apprehensive, 
should they prosecute, that they 
would be murdered by the Klan. 
Indeed, they tell the people upon 
whom they inflict violence, that if 
they should know any of them and 
disclose it, they would be killed. 
With this state of alarm and ap- 
prehension, no one will prosecute. 
Hence the civil authorities are 
powerless. 

Again, should any one have the 
courage and firmness to appear be- 
fore the grand juries there is no 
assurance that an indictment would 
be found. But few of the grand 
juries, it is apprehended, have none 
of the Klan in them, enough, at 
least, are generally there to defeat 
an indictment. As they go in 
masks, it is not known who is or 
who is not in the order, and hence 
they may get on juries and defeat 
the laws. The committee will, in 
this connection, state as a fact that 
when the present Legislature met 



in regular session in October last, 
they were disposed to be liberal 
and repealed the military laws, 
passed by their immediate prede- 
cessors, in the hope and expectation 
that the promises made by those 
who were opposed to them politi- 
cally, that soldiers were unnecessa- 
ry, would be fullfilled. In this they 
regret to say they were disappoint- 
ed, for no sooner was the law re- 
pealed, and the soldiers discharged, 
than the " Kuklux Klan" sprung 
up in Tennessee, and commenced 
their midnight travels and depre- 
dations. The present condition of 
affairs, as given above, is s.ustained 
by sworn testimony before the 
Committee or Mili'^ary Affairs of 
the Legislature of Tennessee of 
witnesses, from various counties in 
that State,and is corroberated by the 
personal observation of the com- 
mittee and confirmed by the his- 
tory of the Tennessee troubles. 
We regret, Mr. President, not being 
able to furnish you, with a printed 
copy of that report and testimony 
on which it is based. When we 
left Nashville they were in the 
hands of the printer, and we are 
unable to procure one. 

We now come to the other part 
of our instructions, which is to 
urge upon you to take steps to give 
protection to the law-abiding citi- 
zens of the State of Tennessee, un- 
der the provisions of the constitu- 
tion of the United States. This we 
now respectfully do, not because 
we believe, or the Legislature and 
the Governor believe, that the State 
is unable to overcome by military 
force the opposition to the State 
Government there and the Kuklux 



6 



Klan, and punish the offenders, but 
because they (the Legislature) and 
we deem it better to have Federal 
troops there to aid in the enforce- 
ment of the laws and suppress any 
riots or insurrection that might be 
attempted or occur. Federal troops 
are preferred on another ground. 
They have no local personal likes 
or dislikes to influence them to 
commit wrongs on peaceful citizens, 
nor be subject themselves, after dis- 
charge from service, to wrongs and 
outrages for having been in the 
State military service. Further, 
this Klan threaten that no more 
electiona shall be held in Tennessee 
in the counties where they have 
the power to prevent it. If this 
should be the principle upon which 
they act in the absence of proper 
force, then probably no election 
could be held in Tennessee, for the 
Eepublicans, in the counties 
where they have the numer- 
ical strength, might drive 
the Conservatives from the polls. 
What we desire is a suflicient force 
to aid the civil authorities in 
holding elections, so that every 
man who is entitled to exercise 
the elective franchise may exercise 
it, no difference for whom or for 
what imrty he may choose to vote. 
That this is the determination of 
the Klan is established by their con- 
tinued night travels, their saying to 
Union men, as well white as col- 
ored, they shall not vote unless they 
exercise the privilege in a particu- 
liar way. They are disarming whi.e 
and colored men wherever they can. 
The Legislature hoped the numbers 
of the Klan would decrease, and 
Iheir outrages would diminish ; but 



in this it was mistaken. It has de- 
layed action, having a well founded 
hope and expectation that the ef- 
forts of certain prominent and dis- 
tinguished representative men who 
had pledged their honest endeavors 
to effect, as far as possible, such a 
desirable result. Their efforts thus 
far have, although made in good 
faith, been crowned with no bene- 
ficial results. On the contrary, their 
numbers and violence in many lo- 
calities are on the increase. Noth- 
ing is therefore left but to resort to 
the military, and the Legislature 
prefers, for the reasons above stated, 
the Federal instead of the State 
troops be used. 

We therefore, on behalf of the 
Legislature of Tennessee, respect- 
fully urge that you send, as early 
as practicable — the sooner the bet- 
ter — sufficient Federal force to that 
State to aid the civil authorities, to 
act with them in suppressing these 
wrongs and bringing to trial the 
guilty parties, giving assurance to 
all that the laws will be enforced, 
crime punished, and j^rotection ex- 
tended to such officers and citizens 
as may attempt to execute the laws 
or prosecute for their violation. 
The Legislature of Tennessee, in 
sending us to make the request we 
have, did so upon the ground that 
she is a part of the great American 
Union, contributing to the support 
of the common Government, enjoy- 
ing its benifits and blessings, and 
that they come asking of the Grov- 
ernment of the United States that 
which they believed they had a 
right under the Constitution to ex- 
pect. 

We respectfully request as early 



an answer from your Excellency as 
it is convenient for you to give it, 
for the reason that the Legislature 
has adopted a resolution fixing 
Monday as the day for adjournment, 
and it is important for them to know 
the result of our application before 
that time. 

Hoping a favorable result to our 
application, we subscribe ourselves, 

Eesj)ectfully, your obedient ser- 
vants, W. H. WiSENER, 

On the part of the Senate, 
Thos. a. Hamilton, 
J. H. Agee. 



War Department, 
Washington City, 
Sept. 11th, 1868. 

To the Ho7i. Wm. H. Wisener, T, A. 

Hamilton and J. H. Agee, Joint 

Select Committee of the Legislature 

of Tennessee: 

Gentlemen : Your communica- 
tion of this date to the President 
respecting the present condition of 
affairs in Tennessee, and urging the 
President to take steps to give pro- 
tection to the law-abiding citizens 
of that State, together with the 
joint resolution of the Legislature 
under which yon were appointed, 
have bee referred to Major General 
George H. Thomas, commanding 
the Department of the Cumberland, 
for his information. 

Major General Thomas has also 
been directed to report without de- 
lay what military force, in addition 
to that now under his command, 
will be required to enable him to 
give all the necessary aid to the civil 
authorities of Tennessee to execute 
the laws, preserve the peace and 



protect the law-abiding citizens of 
that State. Upon receipt of General 
Thomas' report, the necessary mil- 
itary force will be placed at his dis- 
posal. 

The President instructs me to say 
in reply to your communication, 
that the military power of the United 
States will be employed whenever 
and so far as it may be necessary to 
protect the civil Government of 
Tennessee against lawless violence, 
and enable that Government to ex- 
ecute the laws of the State and pro- 
tect its law-abiding citizens. 

I am, gentlemen, very respect- 
fully, your obedient servant, 

J. M. SCHOFIELD, 

Secretary of War. 



War Department, 
Washington City, 
Sept. 11th, 1868. 
Major General George H. Thomas, 

Commanding Department of the 

Cumberland : 

General : Messrs. Wm. H. Wise- 
ner, T, A, Hamilton and J. H. Agee, 
a committee appointed by the Leg- 
islature of Tennessee, have waited 
upon the President and represented 
to him the present condition of af- 
fairs in Tennessee, and urged him 
to take steps to give protection to 
the law-abiding citizens of that 
State. A copy of the joint resolu- 
tion under which the committee 
was appointed, and of a written 
communication from the commit- 
tee to the President, are furnished 
herewith for your information. You 
will please report, without unneces- 
sary delay, what force, in addition 
to that now under your command, 



8 



will be reqnired to enable you to 
give all necessary aid to the civil 
authorities of Tennessee to execute 
the laws, preserve the peace, and 
protect the law-abiding citizens of 
the State. The instructions hereto- 
fore given from this department are 
deemed sufficient for your govern- 
ment. It was the purpose of these 
instructions to confer upon you all 
the power which the laws allow, 



and it is the wish of the President 
that you exercise it within the lim- 
its of your lawful authority — full 
discretion in your action to the end 
that in any event the peace may be 
preserved. 

Very respectfully, your obedient 
servant, etc., 

J. M. SCHOFIELD, 

Secretary of War. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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